Talk:Hecarim/@comment-31.153.30.96-20120531004900
My main and definetely most loved champion. Climbed from 1200 to 1500 elo with ~70% wins with him. Either solo top or jungler. While he's mediocre at those roles (and by that I mean there are better champions who fit these roles), in the right hands he becomes a beast mid-late game. The success derives from the fact that most people have no idea how to counter him. Playing as jungler is a mixed bag for me. His low sustain will force some recalls and he only becomes efficient with red buff on, due to any viable CC (his E knockback is not good enough). Solo top is much better, for me at least, because I don't see any specific counterpicks to shut me down. A good aggressive Olaf or Riven can be really tough (some Pantheons/Irelias aswell but those are rare) but in that case I focus on farm. You could be faced with unwillingly pushing the lane with Q, so always take some distance so your Q last hits minion(s). NEVER EVER build squishy AD; in fact I can carry with Tanky build almost all the time. Build: -Mercs (Never anything else but that those boots, unless heavy AD team) -Sunfire cape (Yes. It's a core item that has brilliant synergy with your W. CORE ITEM. Great armor, great HP, decent passive for teamfights. I rush it most times if I'm doing well.) -Force of Nature (Great regen in between teamfights, amazing MR, nice MS boost for your passive) -Frozen Mallet (I prefer this over TF. I love the slow for constant Q attacks, because my build has low AA dmg) -Phantom Dancer (With your FoN and PD and the FM, no one will ever escape from you.) -Last item is situational. Usually it's any damage item because your damage will be falling off significantly by this point. Last Whisper, Bloodthirster or even The Black Cleaver are good options. You may even go Atmas if opponents have heavy AD. *Viable items include: Frozen Heart (against carries and you'll never go oom), Trinity Force (Frozen Mallet is better but if TF is acceptable), Maw of Malmortius, Randuins (heavy AD opponents), Wriggles (for solotop game). Masteries are 21/0/9 for solotop and 0/21/9 for Jungling. Armor Pen reds, Armor yellows, MR/lvl blues, Armor Pen Quints. Always Flash+Ignite/Smite (exhaust is a viable option aswell). Leveling up priority is R>Q>W>E. If you feel you're dying too often, you can go R>W>Q>E, or even switch to 0/21/9 masteries for solotop. I don't think he's viable however in the higher ELO competitive scene due to his poor lane sustain and glass cannon only AD efficiancy build. His ulti can be a gamechanger though and you can be deceptively tanky if you build him like I do. Due to your heal from W you can duel most Fighters with ease (beware of a fed Jax though!). He might need some very slight buffs in my opinion (buff his main MS, reduce cooldown on E, R could use some less CD aswell or maybe an extra 0.5 sec duration of fear); any of those mentioned above would be fine but overall I think he's OK for now.